


Noho

by McDannoMauLoa



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst, Coda, First Kiss, Fix-It, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:01:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23509561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/McDannoMauLoa/pseuds/McDannoMauLoa
Summary: Coda to Episode 10x22 - spoilers for that episode.Steve and Danny say their goodbyes on the beach, but Steve feels unsettled by some of Danny's comments.
Relationships: Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Comments: 10
Kudos: 204





	Noho

**Author's Note:**

> Series canon - not related to my "McDanno: A Complete History" Series.
> 
> Title Translation: "Stay"

“Don’t make me come looking for you,” Danny called over the back of the chair as Steve started back toward the house.

Steve stopped in his tracks and turned around. Danny hadn’t turned, and was still staring out over the ocean. His chest felt tight as he considered all times Danny had gone looking for him, from the DMZ to the Colombian jungle. Danny had followed him to some of the most difficult locales on the globe to—

Steve stopped and turned again, and Danny’s words from the exact same location the previous week beat through his temples.

“Jersey.”

_If I were Danny and I wanted to be able to find me easily, I’d send me to Jersey._

The thought continued to pulsate through his entire chest as he stepped back into the house.

His goodbye to Eddy perversely seemed to come out of his mouth easier than it did for Danny, but as he was telling the dog to look after Danny he began to wonder about Danny’s comment.

“You know jealousy, is not, uh, pretty on you.”

He meant jealous of him, not jealous of the nurse, right? If he thought about it, he was going to miss looking after Danny in the way that he had for ten years, even though he was convinced so many of those times were literally written into the lines on his face.

He was still massaging Danny’s comments when the team showed up in his living room. He attempted to push them out of his mind while getting final farewells from each of the friends he’d come to care so deeply for in his time home, but they kept creeping back in, as though Danny had been willing himself back into Steve’s mind from that rickety wooden beach chair.

Grover’s “you saved my life” echoed through his eyes as though Danny had said them himself.

Adam’s “always seeing good in me” made him smile about how Danny always seemed to find a nit about him to pick at, but that was his way of saying he loved him.

Tani’s “no” at his playful admonishment to “be good” reminded him that Danny was just as much a firecracker as she was, which is why he loved the times he’d paired up with her on a case.

When he shared breath with Junior in the Polynesian way, he reached a moment of mental clarity when he heard Danny’s dejected “What exactly is it you’re looking for?”

“Hey, guys, I just—I need a minute. I need to do one more thing,” Steve said. He barely registered their quizzical expressions as he began to turn out the front door, but a smirk that Tani gave Noelani didn’t settle his mental fireworks.

He felt the breeze pick up across his face, and took in the smell of the ocean that had woken him up every morning and coaxed him to sleep every evening as he headed into the garage. There was just one more goodbye he needed to say, even though his feet felt heavy when an unnatural regret.

He was resolved that he needed to take this time to go figure everything out, but for some reason the goodbyes were too difficult, the sense of loss was too great, the nagging sense of wonder at what Danny had really been getting at was deep set within him, and he wondered if he could shake it.

In the garage, he found the familiar red toolbox with “Champ” written across the lid, and opening it he wondered how many times he’d gone through the contents over the years, turning back to them whenever he felt flummoxed or confused. Rarely did they ever yield concrete answers—they were really just a collection of things his Dad had kept. But some of them had yielded blockbuster results.

He tensed as he heard someone enter through the makai side of the garage, and his breath caught in his chest again as he heard a familiar voice call out, “Don’t move.”

It took him a split second to realize he was standing in the exact same spot where he’d first met Danny in the fall of 2010, and here was Danny again with the first words he’d ever spoken to him, in a Mexican standoff. He had coming looking for him.

They were once again in a standoff, although this time neither of them were armed, and Danny as moving toward him fast with additional instructions.

“Steve. Stay.”

Steve immediately recognized that pained look on Danny’s face. It was the one he got whenever he was broaching a subject he didn’t want to. He didn’t understand why he hadn’t recognized it was the same face he’d had on the beach, but the intent was now clear.

“Stay.” He said again, fast-hobbling into another embrace that almost knocked Steve over. Danny’s hugs had always been tentative bro hugs, but this time he clung to Steve, almost as though he could restrain him from leaving.

“Danno, I-“ Steve muttered into Danny’s ear. “I have to-“

Danny pulled away and brought Steve eye-to-eye. Danny’s blue eyes seemed to dart to every point on his own face, as though searching for whatever answer they might be able to draw out.

“How many ways do I have to tell you everything you’ve got here is enough?”

Before he could answer, Danny kissed him. Once, tentatively before pulling away and searching for an answer once again in his eyes. The second time longer; just long enough to know Steve wasn’t resisting.

The third time, Steve kissed Danny, and let out the breath he’d been holding.

They kissed for some time, and when Steve finally broke the kiss, with Danny still tightly held in his embrace, he asked, “After all this time, why now?”

“Sometimes what I do is beyond comprehension, even to me,” Danny smirked, “but I guess whenever you’d left before, even if you were doing some crazy insane stunt that would probably get you killed, I always depended on you coming home to me. To Hawai‘i.”

“Even if you had to come get me,” Steve smiled.

“Well, only if I really had to,” Danny said, wryly. “But this time, knowing you weren’t coming home, that’s what got to me,”

“So you were just going to let me go, back there on the beach, it got to you that much?” Steve began in a tone he knew Danny would understand was joking.

Danny smirked. “Seat 5A on the United flight to Newark,”

“Yeah,” Steve said.

“I’m 5B.” Danny smiled.

“I mean, I _was_ 5A.” Steve said.

“What ya feelin’, babe?” 

Steve felt a contented sigh escape his lips, as he clasped both of Danny’s hands in his own. He chuckled at his own realization and at the storybook absurdity of realizing after a decade he was in love with his best friend, who had known it, and been dropping obvious hints the entire time.

“Peace, Danno,” Steve smiled.


End file.
